Baptisia: Bold, beautiful, and underused native perennials

JACKSONVILLE, Ill. — As gardeners, we’re often on the lookout for low-maintenance plants with colorful flower displays. One such plant that fits that description, and is vastly underutilized in the landscape, is Baptisia. These easy-to-grow native perennials are primarily grown for their colorful floral displays, ranging from blue, purple, white, and yellow. They can also provide multi-season interest, making them a great addition to the landscape.

Getting to know Baptisia

Baptisia plants typically grow three to four feet tall and wide, forming a bushy, shrub-like mound. As the shoots emerge from the ground, they resemble asparagus stems. They have trifoliate leaves (compound leaves with three leaflets) that can range in color from yellow-green to green to blue-green to gray-green, and provide a nice contrast with their colorful blooms.

Baptisia will bloom in late spring to early summer. The flowers are produced on spikes (racemes) that rise above the foliage and can be 12-24 inches tall. Blooms can last for three weeks or longer. Large, mature plants can produce dozens of flower stalks, making for an impressive sight.

After flowering, the plants may produce two to three-inch-long seed pods, which turn black as they mature and are often used in floral arrangements. Plants will die back to the ground during the winter, and can be left standing, providing winter interest, or removed.

Growing Baptisia in the garden

Baptisia may take a couple of years to reach full size and begin blooming profusely, while they often look scraggly and unimpressive at the garden center, they are well worth the wait.

Baptisias prefer well-drained soils. As members of the bean family, they are able to fix their own nitrogen, allowing them to tolerate poor soils. They do best in full sun and can tolerate part shade, but blooming may be reduced, and the plant may become leggy.

Once established, plants are drought-tolerant due to their deep, extensive root system. This large root system also makes them difficult to transplant, so choose their location wisely. If plants need to be moved or divided, this should be done in the spring, and plants should be well watered until they become established again.

Baptisias have few pest and disease problems and are deer resistant. One problem people may encounter is flopping. If flopping is an issue, peony cages can be placed over plants to help hold them upright.

In addition to their attractiveness as landscape plants, Baptisias also have wildlife value. They are frequently visited by bumble bees, which are able to force open their pea-like flowers. They are also host plants for several species of butterflies like orange sulphur, clouded sulphur, frosted elfin and eastern tailed blue.

The many types of Baptisia

B. alba, white false indigo, and B. australis, blue false indigo, are the most commonly found species in the horticultural trade. However, over the years, there has been extensive breeding, and many cultivars and hybrids are now available. Several of which have been produced at the Chicago Botanical Garden. In addition to the blue, white and yellow flowers of the species, a variety of different colors can be found, ranging from violet, purple, maroon and pink.

Good Growing Fact of the Week: The name Baptisia comes from the Greek word bapto, meaning to dip or to dye. Baptisia australis was used as a substitute for true indigo (Indigofera tinctoria) to create blue dye.